He said he has no interest in getting back into management at the moment

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson

Both clubs are chasing the former Barcelona boss, with Manchester United also interested in recruiting him as Ferguson’s successor.

Ferguson has met Guardiola in New York several times since the former Spain midfielder announced he was taking a year off, and has some bad news for them.

Asked whether he had ever known a situation where a manager is as much in demand as a star player, Fergie said: “That is difficult to say. I spoke to Pep a while ago and he said he has no interest in getting back into management at the moment.

“His record is fantastic. The trophies that he won at Barcelona were quite exceptional and that is his CV – he wins trophies.

"Barcelona have always had that style and played attractive football. He increased that by putting a new work ethic into the players.

“They work extremely hard to get the ball back and if you combine that with their possession it makes a fantastic team.”

Guardiola has twice won the Champions League with Barcelona as well as lifting the Spanish League title three times.

Paris SG and Bayern Munich have shown a serious interest, and City and Chelsea both want him after crashing out of the Champion League group stage this year.

Fergie told Yahoo: “Europe has certainly been disappointing for Premier League teams in the last couple of years, whereas prior to that we had three teams in the semi-finals and an all-English final between ourselves and Chelsea.

“Sometimes, however, you get blips but I don’t see this happening consistently as I think English teams will always be challenging in the latter stages.”

Arsene Wenger admits there will be no easy route to the final at Wembley.

The Arsenal boss said: “Maybe now we have less room, less margin, than we had before, when it was just a question of when we would qualify.

“Now German football has come up, Spanish football is there every year and some French clubs have come back like Paris St Germain.”

Barcelona have confirmed that boss Tito Vilanova, 44, will undergo surgery today followed by a course of cancer treatment for six weeks.